Machine for cutting screws on bedstead-rails



UNITED STATES PATENT, OFFICE@ HENRY GROSS, OF TIFFIN, OHIO.

MACHINE FOR CUTTING SCREWS ON BEDSTEAD-RAILS.

l Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 12,905, dated May 22, 1,855.

To all whom, t may concern.- v

-Beit known that I, HENRY GROSS, of the city of Tiiiin, in the county of Seneca and Stateof Ohio, have invented a new Combinationand-Improvements in Apparatus for Cutting Screws on the Ends of Bedstead- Rails; and I do hereby declare that. the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the principle or characterwhich distinguishes them from all other things before known, and of the usual manner of making, modifying, and using the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which- AFigure l is a perspective top View of the apparatus. Fig. 2 is a side view of the same machine, showing the wedge by which the shaft containing the screws is changed from right to left, and also showing the double screw by which the clamp (intended for holding the end of the rail) is opened and closed. Fig. 8 is Vanl end View of the apparatus, showing the double [clamp for holding the rail while being cut and the end of the cylinder to which the double V-cutter is attached for cutting the screw. Fig. Je is also a side view 4of the-machine, showing the lever Working on a pivot in the middle and attached at each endV to the nut-blocks which guide the shaft (bylneans of the screw thereon) attached to the cylinder-head, and which in the changes from right to'left, in connection with the wedge, raises one of the nut-blocks and at the same time' depresses the other. Fig. 5 is an end view of the cylinder-head or cutter-stock, showing the double V-cutter attached by a steel screw in the center, and which worksin a corresponding cavity cut in the cylinderhead. Fig 6 is a view of the double V-cutter. Fig. 7 shows the upper side of the cutter.

In the drawings like letters refer to like parts.

a is the bed-frame with two posts Z1 l), all of cast-iron'and cast together. The bottom of the bed-frame is shaped as shown in Fig. l.

cis-a wrought-iron shaft with crank at one end, andto the opposite end is attached the cylinder-head d, and upon the intermediate portion of the shaft c are a right and left screw, starting each way from the center, and each with the same pitch of thread as is needed in the screw to be cut and working in and guided by a nut-block underneath,as seen in Fig. 2 at e e, and which is a longitudinal half of a female screw. One of these blocks has a right and the other a left handed nut or female screw, and which are changed and brought in contact with the screw on the shaft by means of the Wedgef. (Shown in Fi0x2.) This wedge is of iron and secured from sliding out sidewise by a pin in the under side, which slides in asmall opening made in the bed-plate for the purpose, and moved to the right or left by a handle projecting at right angles with the wedge, asseen at g, Fig.

l. Then the wedge is forced to the right, ity

raises the right nut-block,which fit-s the right screw on the shaft. The crank is then turned to the right for cutting. Then this change is made by the'wedge, the end of the lever h, attached to this nut-block, is also raised, and being confined in the center by a pin the nutblock at the other end of the lever is de-' pressed and brought'down out of -the way of the screw on the shaft above it.

When a screw is to be cut on the opposite end of. the rail, and which is the left-handed screw, the wedge isforced to the left, which elevates the left nut-block, fitting the screw on the shaft above it, and the opposite nutblock is depressed by the lever, as above described. 'lhe crank is now turned to the left when cutting. The lever `does not only act to free the nut-blocks, but also places them (when forced upward by the wedge) so as to precisely it the screws von the shaft, respectively, when the shaft is turned back to its proper place before the change is made by the wedge-that is, when it is so far turned back that the shoulder of the shaft at the inner end of the cylinder-head comes in contact with the post l).

The cylinder-head is made of cast-iron and large enough to admit the tenon on thc rail to be cut, and is firmly attached to the shaft c c. The double V-cutter is made of the best of cast-steel, (side and top views seen at Figs. 6 and 7,) and is attached to the cylinder-head, as seen in Fig. 5, and secured to the cylinder by a steel screw i, and is kept in its place when cutting by the screw-headjj, one side of the heads of which is cut. off, so that when the dat side is turned toward the cutter itis released and can then be changed by pressing down the other end, which is secured in its place in'the same way byva screw on that side, which has simply to be turned'far enough Y to bring the rounded side of the scrcw-head over the cutter at thatpoint. These screws work in the cylinder-head. The double V-' cutter is broad at the outer points K K and tapers toward the middle with a greater curve upon one side than the other to give the thread of the screw to be cut thereby the proper pitch laterally, and the cavity in the cylinder-head in which the double V-cutter works is so cut as to correspond exactly with it, fitting the V perfectly, so that when it is down on either side and the screw-head 7' turned to secure it (the V) from rising up the pressure againstA the edge of the cutter when in use wedges it tight in the cavity, and by this means little or no strain is felt by the steel screw t.

l, Fig. 3, is the double clamp by which one end of the rail is held while the screw is being cut, the other end or part of the rail resting upon a wooden block, Fig. 0, with a pointed iron set in the center, securing the rail when forced down upon it to its proper place. The two jaws of the clamp l are attached to each other by a joint, and secured at this point also to a short post or standard cast with the bed-frame, while the other two ends of the jaws of the double clamp pass into a hollow post at the other side of the bed-frame, and are operated upon when opening and closing the clamp by means of a small perpendicular shaft of wrought-iron having upon it two screws opposite to each other and running each way from the center, passing through two nuts, one upon the under side of the lower jaw of the clamp and the other upon the upper side of the upper jaw, and are so constructed as to bear upon the respective jaws of the clamp when closing them, and also press open the jaws of the clamp when the screw is reversed in order to release the rail, and in order to effect this double object while giving a lateral movement to the jaws of the clamp when opening or closing (and which could not be dispensed with) each nut bears upon one side of the jaw, as aforesaid, passes through it, and is bent down and fits in a groove cut inthe jaw and parallel with it, as seen in Fig'. 2, m being the upper part and 'n the under part of the nut. This nut is shown by Fig. 8 with a section of the screw passing through it.

O shows the perpendicular shaft, with crank at top and double screw, and which is attached to the hollow post projecting up from the bed-frame and is cast with it. j), Fig. 3, is this post.

The peculiar advantage of the double clamp as used in this machine is that the jaws open and close just alike as respects distance from a center, by which the center of the rail is always presented to the cylinder-head without reference to its size or thickness and needs no gaging down to one size. Besides this the clamp holds the rail very firmly, and is readily fastened and speedily released by the crank at the top of the shaft.

At q, Fig. 3, is a shoulder on the bed plate or frame and in front of the cylinder, against which the shoulder of the rail is placed in order to secure always the commencement of the thread of the screw at the same point, and also to end it at the same distance from such point, without which a tight joint cannot be secured and one of the great objects of this kind of bedstead defeated.

In using the machine it is fixed to any colnmon work-bench with two screws passing through the bed-frame. The block, Fig. 9, is placed on the bench in a line with the cylinder-head and distant about midway of the rail to be cut. One end of the rail is then placed in the clamp, with the shoulder against the shoulder of the bed-frame, the middle thereof resting upon the block, Fig. 9, and fixed by the iron pin. The clamp is closed upon the rail and the thread of the screw cut. This done, the rail is released and the other end placed in the clamp, the block,

Fig. 9, still adhering by the pin to the rail,

thereby keeping the same side of the rail upward, which is very important, in order that the starting and ending parts of the screws on each end of the rail should be precisely alike, as before stated. This block also admits a rail of any length being used without change of head-blocks, dac., as heretofore used.

"What I claim as new herein, and which I desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

l. The mechanical combination and arrangement ot' the double V-cutter and the manner it is secured in the cylinder-head when used by the screw-head j j, also the changes from right to left, by which changes right and left handed screws are cut with the same cylinder-head and double V-cutter.

2. The mechanical arrangement and combination of the lever 7i, the wedgef, and nutblocks e e when working togetherin the manner described-viz., the nutblocks being right and left longitudinal sections of female screws and used to direct the course of the shaft to which the cylinder-head is attachedthe wedge by which the nut blocks are changed, and the lever which guides the blocks and keeps them in their proper place when the change is made.

3. In combination as above, the double clamp l and nut m n, as shown in Fig. 8, the screw by which the clam p is opened and closed, and the rest-block, Fig. i), for supporting the rail while being cut.

All the foregoing I claim as a combination and arrangement for the purposes aforesaid new, different, and far surpassing any machine nowin use for cutting these screws. All

else and all other parts of machines designedfor the same purpose l disclaim.

HENRY GROSS. \Vitnesses:

R. G. PENNINGTON, J. H. LEIDY. 

